These wineries and leaders are setting the standard for innovation, engagement, and operational excellence across our community. Active Participant 🔹 Galen Becker Drace — Arkenstone Estate Winery Continuous Learner 🔹 Angela Walker — Corison Winery Community Champion 🔹 Truman Prewitt — Sculpterra Winery & Vineyards  The Unity Award 🔹 Karen Darling — Bella Vineyards Feedback MVPs 🔹 Adam C. — Somerston Estate 🔹 Marian Kildahl — Imagery Estate Winery  Super Users 🔹 Harry Bagnaschi — Treasury Wine Estates 🔹 Doug M. — The Duckhorn Portfolio 🔹 Jessica Hartin — JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery Early Adopter Excellence 🔹 Far Niente Wine Estates 🔹 Hess Persson Estates  🔹 Laurel Glen Vineyard 🔹 Sangiacomo Family Wines Transformation Champions 🔹 Alyssa Kosan 🔹 Eric Mueller — Antica Terra 🔹 Kevin Jessen — Firstleaf User of the Year 🔹 Rebbecca Ingalls — Crimson Wine Group Congratulations to our 2026 honorees! Lea

Dear Customer, As bottling season approaches, we’re here to support you with specialized testing services and essential products to ensure your wine is at its best. Important Details for Testing Services: These tests are not included in your subscription pricing; individual pricing is listed below. Each test requires a separate sample, with specific volume requirements. Please label your samples clearly with the test name. For Turbidity (NTU) and Brettanomyces testing, ensure you write "NTU" or "Brett" on the sample tube cap and label for streamlined processing. Available Tests and Pricing: Stability Testing (Please complete the Stability Test Request Form) Heat Stability Test: $20/sample (250 mL sample required) Bentonite Fining Trials: $75/sample (750 mL sample required) Note: These trials take 3 days and will start the following Monday if submitted after noon on Thursday. Davis Conductivity Test: $30/sample (375 mL sample required) DIT – Degree o

With a new year underway, we at Ciatti wish all of our friends, clients and business associates a very happy and prosperous 12 months ahead. Many thanks for your continued support.  If 2022 was characterised by rising inflation levels, and 2023 by interest-rate increases to tackle inflation, then 2024 was characterised by the hangover. A word for it was coined: “Vibecession” – a disconnect between the more positive economic indicators emerging through the year and consumer perceptions of the economy. In some cases, earnings increases have lagged 2021-23 inflation, reducing spending power outright. But more pervasive is a sense of a “cost-of-living crisis”: essential living expenses – mortgages, rent, fuel, energy – are noticeably higher than four years ago and constitute a greater share of total spend. As we observed in September, in a discretionary-spending squeeze, “wine’s higher price per alcohol unit versus its ever-prolif

Having largely adhered to a normal timetable, the Northern Hemisphere harvests are now winding down: France and Italy are currently projected to produce crops short of their five-year averages by 11% and 12.8% respectively, while California is on course for a crop – guesstimated at 3.2-3.3 million tons – short by long-term historical standards but in fact not far off the 3.5 million tons that is the five-year average since the state’s 2018 crop, the last to reach the 4-million-ton mark. Only Spain’s crop is expected to near its average, although a rainy end to the growing season is likely to rein-in availability of 11%+ alcohol wines.  None of this news has stimulated a great deal of extra activity on the bulk market. Last year Italy experienced its shortest crop in five decades, with ramifications for demand levels in Spain and, in turn, ripple effects further afield. Partly in response to that demand, Spanish prices have increased and Italy’s crop,

After veraison, as grapes develop their enticing color in the vineyard, the age-old battle between man and nature — in the form of hungry birds — begins. Vintners and farmers have experimented with gas cannons, reflective flash tape, sonic sound systems, drones and netting to scare off their voracious flying opponents. But, the noise of cannons and sonics can irritate neighbors, and drones and netting are labor intensive, making them too expensive to maintain. Nature often provides the best solution, and in the case of birds raiding vineyards, the natural solution is birds of prey like falcons. Small birds' instinctive fear of their natural predators causes the flock to shift direction, saving the crop from invasion. After five decades in the bird abatement business, Falcon Crop Protection has an intimate knowledge of bird behavior and has brought this knowledge to wine country after their marketing manager moved to Healdsburg, launching Falcon Crop Protection to help

With a new year underway, we at Ciatti wish all of our friends, clients and business associates a very happy and prosperous 12 months ahead. Many thanks for your continued support.  If 2022 was characterised by rising annual inflation levels and a supply chain crisis, 2023 will be remembered for interest rates rises and sluggish buyer demand. Inflation levels, and the interest rates increased to curb them, reined-in consumer confidence and discretionary spending in most key markets through the year. In turn, this reduced distributor and retailer demand for wine – many were, in any case, still working through inventories they had accumulated during the 2020-21 pandemic-induced consumer demand spike, or supplies that had only recently arrived after 2021-22’s shipping delays. Distributors and retailers also pushed back against bulk wine suppliers seeking to increase prices in order to maintain margin amid the inflationary environment. Consequently, bulk demand was slow an

Afternoon Brief, January 9th

US Alcohol Industry's Worst Year Since 1991: The vast American liquor industry hasn't been in such poor shape for three decades...

On March 16, 2022, the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology Extension Team will host a Grapevine Red Blotch Disease Symposium. This program will be available both as an in-person program (at the UC Davis Conference Center) and live-streamed as a webinar (on Zoom).  Speakers will include: Cindy Kron, Frank Zalom, Kent Daane, Nitin Nitin, Justin Tanner, Kaan Kurtural, Houston Wilson, Anita Oberholster and more! More details, including presentation titles, will be coming soon. LOCATION This is a hybrid event. Attendees have the option of attending in-person at the Conference Center on the UC Davis Campus, or by live stream. Click here for more info

Prestige Beverage Group Appoints New General Manager to Steer Company into the Future

November 2nd – Mendota Heights, Minn. – Prestige Beverage Group, an industry leading importer and brand owner of award-winning wines and spirits from around the globe, is pleased to announce the promotion of Justin Ashton to General Manager and Executive Vice President of Sales. Ashton joined Prestige in 2020 and has since demonstrated strong leadership […]

December’s conference kicks off with a new format to engage professionals in all sectors of wine. —Barbara Barrielle Wine Industry Network continues its tradition as a leader in wine and wine-related conferences with its annual Wine Industry Expo Trade Show (WIN Expo), scheduled for December 2, 2021 at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. This year’s event includes an increased focus on education, with industry seminars, lectures, and interactive winemakers’ trial tastings. For the first time, WIN Expo will offer four tracks for attendees—Winemaking, Sales & Marketing, Strategy & Leadership, and Viticulture—the latter of which is a new addition to the program. The day will be a learning and sharing vehicle no matter what segment of the wine industry attendees work in or want to explore. WINExpo’s importance to the wine industry means that the voices and ideas that are shaping the future of winemaking and wine marketing come together to share